Page 27 of Callahan

“Good morning.” His deep voice was gravelly from sleep. “You’re a nice sight to wake up to.”

He kissed Conor’s hair, then lifted an arm and rotated it over his shoulder, like he wanted to get the blood flowing. His biceps and pecs flexed in the process.

Yeah, forget ovulating. I may have just gotten pregnant again.

He switched the arm he was holding the baby with and repeated the action.

I knew I was staring. Some might even call it gawking.

Moving toward the chair, I quietly said, “I can take him. I can’t believe he’s still sleeping, to be honest.”

He chuckled softly. “We uh—had some struggles last night, so it might have taken a while for him to fall back asleep.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Let’s just say you might have to do laundry sooner than you were expecting. And I owe you some diapers. But we got it figured out.”

I gestured to where my son was still asleep on his chest.

“I see that.”

“Go get ready. We’re fine. I’ll come find you when he wakes up. Or I can make my first bottle feeding attempt.”

“I haven’t tried a bottle with him yet.”

“No?”

I shook my head, internally preparing for his judgment like Brian’s last night. Instead, he shrugged and said, “That makes sense. I mean, you’re with him all day. Why would you need to?”

“Exactly! Although,” I paused for a beat. “I probably should consider starting so Shawn’s family can spend more time with him.”

“Or so you could go on a date.”

I swallowed hard. Was he offering to take me out?

“I thought you were leaving today?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean me.”

Can the floor open up and suck me in?

He continued, “I meant I’m sure there are a lot of men in town who would love to take you out.”

“Mmm, you would be mistaken. No one’s interested in dating a single mom. At least notthissingle mom.”

“Sugar, if I lived here, I’d be on your doorstep tomorrow night asking for a date.”

I laughed. “That’s easy for you to say, since you’re getting on a bus later.”

He grinned. “Yeah, you’re right. Plus, I’m not sure how well that would go over with Brian and Shawn’s family.”

“Welcome to life in a small town. And the reason I probably won’t go on another date until Conor graduates. No man is going to want to deal with that.”

“The right one will. He’ll be man enough to handle the O’Briens, and the O’Shaughnessys, and any other ‘O’s’ in town.”

“Hopefullymy‘O’s’.” My eyes went wide, and I clapped my hand over my mouth as I felt the blush creep up my chest to my neck and face. “I can’t believe I just said that!”

But Adam didn’t appear scandalized. No, he chuckled and replied, “Especiallythose ‘O’s’.”

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